Posted on 10/04/2007 1:45:05 AM PDT by rontorr
Rangoon (dpa) - In their ongoing crackdown on dissent in Rangoon, where tens-of-thousands took to the streets in protests last week, military authorities have arrested people who merely clapped for the demonstrators or took pictures of the events, sources said Thursday.
On Wednesday night security personnel raided homes situated along Kyartawya Street, east of the Shwedagon Pagoda, and arrested scores of people who had allegedly given moral support to the monk-led peaceful demonstrations that rocked Rangoon between September 18 to 26, informed sources said.
"Their crime was for clapping and encouraging the monks," said one observer.
The Shwedagon, Rangoon's most sacred shrine, was the springboard for the monks' barefoot marches against the regime last month that ended in a brutal crackdown that left ten dead, according to the government. Others believe the death toll was much higher.
Several amateur photographers, including one who allegedly took a photo of a dead monk floating in the Rangoon River that has been widely publicized, have also been detained, sources said.
Last month's protests have been hailed by the Western press as a triumph for the Internet and citizen journalists, who managed to get photos and information out of the country despite the regime's heavy clamp on news and newsmen.
But the new wave of journalism in Burma has not proven impervious to the regime's old methods of suppressing news through terror and intimidation.
At least one Japanese photo-journalist was shot dead in the crackdown on demonstrators, and several Burma journalists were detained.
Security personnel have been raiding households in Rangoon on a nightly basis since the regime began to crack down on the anti-military protests on September 26.
Thousands have been arrested, according to diplomatic sources.
"I am very concerned about the fate of the detainees because their numbers are apparently quite high, and there is no outside body that is allowed to visit them," said Finnish ambassador to Rangoon Lars Backstrom.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been denied access to Burma's prisons for several months.
I had heard earlier they were frisking people on the streets for cameras and phones, but these night time arrests seem to be the thing the thugs have started doing in the last few days, fewer witnesses I guess. Also, if you read the Chaing Mai Mail, a weekly news you can read about some of the local views up here about what is going on. I think their website is http://chiangmai-mail.com could org I still don’t know how to post a web link properly, sorry
” Burma Cracks Down on Citizen Journalists “
The Dems are taking notes — might be some tactics here they can use in their War on Rush and the Conservative Blogosphere......
You posted that link just fine. Thanks for the ping and the information. They’ll be frisking us here too before long.
Informers, local officials and other vulnerable supporters of the junta need to start disappearing.
any news of Thai monks in Chiang Mai having anything to say about what has been happening to the Burmese Sangha?
Across border solidarity would do MUCH to aide this situation
I read in The Chiang Mai Mail that they were speaking out at a protest in Chiang Mai last Saturday
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